Alex and Ian graduated from Marshall Univwersity. Both graduated with honors. Ian – Summa Cum Laude. Alex – Magna Cum Laude. We are very proud of them as they complete one phase of their life and move on to the next.

Alex and Ian and the memorial fountain. This is a center piece of the campus as it memorializes the loss of Marshall students and staff in a plane crash. The movie “We are Marshall” tells this story. Twice a year there is a ceremony at the fountain. A ceremony when the fountain is started in the spring and another when it is shut down in the fall.

Alex’s maid of honor joined us for the graduation as well. It was great that she was able to make it to Huntington for the graduation.

Alex swam the 100 Back in Prelims. She swam a 58.82, which was a season best. It was not her PB though as she went 58.20 last year during high school champs. She finished 17th overall… 1st alternate for Finals! So close, but yet so far from making it to Finals. Still that time makes her the 3rd fastest back stroke swimmer in Marshall history.

Alex, also, swam on the 200 Free Relay in finals. She swam the 2nd leg and recorded a 23.73 split a season and lifetime best swim for her. Her first sub-24 second swim in the 50 Free (relay or individual swim). That was the fastest time of the Marshall swimmers on the relay. The relay finished 6th out of 6, but they were missing a couple faster sprinters. All in all the team did well and finished the day 5th in overall score.

Alex had her first competition today. She swam the 50 Free. Her time was 24.70 which was a season best. While that wasn’t quite her goal time she was OK with it as her foot slipped on the block at the start. She finished 23rd overall after coming in seeded 31st. That gives her the 2nd best time on the team this season and puts her on the top 10 (9th) for all time performers in Marshall team history.

Alex will be competing at the Conference USA Swimming Championships this week in Houston: Feb. 15-18.

Alex’s events:

Thursday: 50 Free, seeded 31st

Friday: 100 Back, seeded 23rd; 200 Free Relay

Saturday: 100 Free, seeded 24th; 400 Free Relay

Each team only gets one relay entry. Alex will be swimming on both of the Free Relays at Finals. Top 16 qualify for Finals, so based on Alex’s seeding she will need some good swims to make Finals individually.

Alex finished the 1st half of the season on a strong note. In the final meet of the season she swam season best times in the 100 Back and 100 Free plus her best split in the 200 Free Relay. Those swims put her in the ranks of Marshall’s All-Time Top 10 Performers. Her 53.67 in the 100 Free was the best time in the 100 Free of any Marshall swimmer this season and puts her 10th on the all-time performer list. Her 59.85 in the 100 Back was the 3rd best 100 Back time of any Marshall swim this season and ranks her 6th on the all-time performer list. While these were season best numbers they are still over a second off her lifetime best times, so she has room to move up on these lists by the end of the season.

Here are the top 5 swims for Marshall of the season for those events:

You can keep up with all the Herd action in the pool at the Herd Zone: CLICK HERE

Alex swam her first college swim meet this last Saturday. It was a quad meet against Radford University, James Madison University, and Campell University. They swam at Radford in Virginia. Alex swam two individual events and two relays.

Her first event was the 200 Medley Relay which she was the lead off leg of the “A” relay swimming Backstroke. She went out in a 29.57 putting the relay in 4th after her leg. The relay finished 3rd overall.

Next was the 100 Backstroke which she swam in a 1:02.44 for a 5th (of 15) place finish.

The 100 Freestyle followed that where she swam a 56.42. With that she finished 9th of 14 swimmers. She said her last 25 was really slow and expects to do better next swim.

The last event was the 200 Freestyle Relay. Alex swam the 3rd leg of the “A” relay. She swam a 25.24 for the 2nd fastest split on the team (fastest was only .01 seconds faster). The relay finished 4th overall.

Marshall went 2-1 in the overall team competition beating Radford and Campbell and losing to James Madison.

Here’s a link to the recap of the meet on the Marshall Swimming & Diving site: HERE